Winner: Interior designer of the year 2025. Shanghai-based interior design studio Atelier tao+c.
Atelier tao+c was founded by Tao Liu and Chunyan Cai in 2016. Their work ranges from a piece of pendant lamp to a compound development, from the interiors of small urban apartments to the renovation of old rural houses. They tackle with careful investigations and research, tapping into a better understanding of typology. The design method is semi-architectural semi-interior, retreating to the inner world, allowing the space to grow from the inside and break through the perimeter, intermediating the inside and outside.

Recent projects include a light-filled bookshop with a timber roof in the ski resort of Aranya Chongli and a private library for a venture capital firm in Shanghai.

"Parallel with the practical works, the office has involved with research and teaching, focus on subjects such as revival of old buildings and objects in domestic landscape." our interior judges commented.